A Beautiful Place for a Murder

A Beautiful Place for a Murder is a young adults’ murder mystery set in Edale, in the Peak District. An elderly writer is found dead in her garden, and teenage Shaun was the last person to visit her house. He and his girlfriend Caroline desperately try to prove his innocence. 12+

Sadly, A Beautiful Place for a Murder is no longer available, although you may be able to find secondhand copies on Amazon or elsewhere.

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“It was the first time Mum had left me on my own. Five days of glorious freedom stretched in front of me. ‘Enjoy yourself!’ I shouted, waving her off. ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine!’

I danced back into the house, whooping with delight. And half an hour after she’d gone, I was plunged into the worst experience of my life.”

How ‘A Beautiful Place for a Murder’ began

A Beautiful Place for a Murder began as a short story, commissioned by the small independent press, Five Leaves. The commission was to write a story for young adults, and it had to be set in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or Leicestershire. I live in the very beautiful Edale valley, in Derbyshire, and many of my stories and novels are set here.

I thought it would be an opportunity for me to try to write in a different genre from my other stories: crime fiction. It would be a new challenge for me. It also amused me to think of basing some of my characters on local people (disguised, of course!). Then I realised two things. I was really getting interested in writing this story. And it was too long for the word limit!

In the end Ross Bradshaw, the publisher, offered to publish the first chapters in his short story collection. When it was finished, he would also publish the novel.

From draft to publication

I visited the people who, in disguise, were criminal suspects in A Beautiful Place for a Murder (the Vicar, a Latin scholar, an old lady in her 90s) and confessed. I timidly asked their permission to develop their characters in the story, and promised that if they objected, I would rewrite it. To my relief they were delighted to be in the book!

The only person who objected was an elderly lady who complained because she wasn’t in the book! “Everyone else is…”

I hope you enjoy reading it. It’s quite different from everything else I’ve written, but if you enjoy a bit of a mystery in the story you might like to read The Snake-Stone.